Recyclables Without Certain Consequences – Aubrey Daniels – Dallas Growth SummitMONDAY, NOVEMBER 2ND, 2009
The cameras are rolling. A TV station is recording Atlanta sanitation crews as they gather recyclable waste to dispose of in bins and containers on their sanitation trucks. Only they aren’t sorting the waste they’re dumping it in the trash. When discovered and reported the mayor proclaims that if the crews don’t follow the rules they will be fired.
Weeks go by, the TV station again returns with their cameras and behold the behavior has – NOT STOPPED!
Why?
Aubrey Daniels described the outcome using the ABC model. A stands for antecedent, the setting or event. B is behavior or actions. And C is consequence, the reinforcement or punishment. In the case of the Atlanta sanitation crews here’s how they viewed the situation, and remember that the best way to ensure you change behavior is to make sure it is Positive, Immediate and has a certain consequence. [P/N = Positive/Negative, I/F = Immediate/Future, C/U = Certain or Uncertain.
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ANTECEDENT
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CONSEQUENCE
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P/N
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I/F
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C/U
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Crew not sorting recyclables
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Don’t believe it’s important.
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Saves Time
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P
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I
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C
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Union will protect
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Easier
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P
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I
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C
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Management won’t follow through
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Praise from co-workers
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P
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I
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C
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|
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Others don’t do it
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Might get fired
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N
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F
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U
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|
|
|
|
|
|
|
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Placing recyclables in proper bins
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Trained
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Takes Longer
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N
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I
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C
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Bins Labeled
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More effort
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N
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I
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C
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|
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Warned
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Go Home Later
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N
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I
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C
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Saw TV Report
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Might get Fired
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P
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F
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U
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The antecedent gets behavior started, and the consequence causes the behavior to continue or cease.
If you look at this table you’ll see that the value in not sorting recyclables is much stronger than for sorting them. All the reasons for sorting fall into the negative while the reasons for not sorting are largely positive. It’s easier, they get home from work faster and they also get praise from their peers. Wouldn’t you rather be home earlier than to spend longer, work harder, and get home later? Even under fear of firing these sanitation workers continued to fail to sort recyclables into the proper bins. As you can see there was a protector as well that they felt certain would prevent them from getting fired – the Union.
Daniels point – behavior goes where reinforcement flows. In this case the wrong behavior had all the positives, while placing the recyclables in the proper bins had negatives. Even the punishment [getting fired] was mitigated by the uncertain outcome that the Union strength represented.
Positive Immediate Consequences are the most powerful, with Negative Immediate Consequences a close second. If you can review your own teams performance can you see where you are reinforcing the wrong behavior? Can you see when you ask someone to do something that will require more work, take longer and get them home later you are setting the stage to have real difficulty getting the outcome you want unless you provide a offsetting positive stimulus?
The least powerful behavior reinforcement is Positive or negative, future, uncertain. We’ll explore how common forms of business organizational consequences fall into this range and why they have little effect on people’s performance in my next blog.
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